FFXIV Arcanist (ACN) Leveling Guide

How to level up your Arcanist (ACN) fast! Useful cross-class skills, reminders, and the best places to be in any level – HERE!

Lured in by the pets? Don’t sweats. Our Arcanist leveling guide can help you out! Since leveling up fast is why you found this page, I assume!

This page is strictly for Arcanist – focusing more on ACN specific info like skills, traits, and playstyle notes. The GENERAL PROCESS that you should be following is outlined in our GENERAL LEVELING GUIDE: Which you should be using ALONGSIDE THIS GUIDE.

Arcanist: Unlocking, and other basics

How to unlock the ACN Class?

Location: Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks, Arcanists’ Guild (x:6, y:10.6)NPCs:Murie, ThubyrgeimRelated Quests: (all in the same place)
> So you want to be a Arcanist
> Way of the Arcanist
> My First Grimoire (all in the same place)
— Others: You may also begin the game as Arcanist

Arcanist are the only “Hybrid class”. For the intents of queueing up pre L30, they are Healers. Their main stat is INT, but many pieces of gear give them incidental MND stat which helps healing.

You should be using a DPS or Tank Chocobo companion (maybe a hybrid of the two).

You may also want to check out our Arcanist General Guide & FAQ for other basic info.

Leveling Methods, References and Reminders

In these boxes, I’ll put info that you’ll likely be referring to (or discovering) while leveling up your Arcanist.

EXP Grinding Methods

Here’s a generic outline of what you should be doing at any given time. The higher it is, the more value it is for EXP.

Leveling Activity

Unlocks & Notes

Main Scenario Quest

If this is your first character. Only stop and go down the list if you’re locked out.

Duty Roulette: Leveling

Complete Sastasha and Tam-tara Deepcroft in the main scenario.

Palace of the Dead

Unlocks at L17 for your first character, and you can zone in at L1 thereafter.

FATES

The baseline activity for gaining incidental EXP.

Guildhest

Complete each one ONCE for each class. Roulette version optional.

Hunting Log

Gives some decent EXP if you’re bored or in queue. Terrible if you skip a tier.

Challenge Log

Unlocks at L17 for your first character. Best done “passively” until nearing week end.

L4 Skill Unlocked – Physick: A run of the mill heal. Notice how generic Disciple of Magic gear has Mind on it, which improves healing.

L5 ACN Class Quest – check in on your guildmaster in Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks – Arcanists’ Guild. These spawn every 5 levels up until 50, and can give you notable rewards (besides, you NEED to do them to become a Summoner or Scholar).

L6 Skill Unlocked – Aetherflow: The core of your future as an Arcanist. Aetherflow restores mana and gives you “Aetherflow“, which you expend to use special skills.

L6 Skill Unlocked – Energy Drain: Is one of those skills that use Aetherflow, coincidentally gained on the same level… It’s an off-gcd (OGCD) spell that damages enemies and gives you a bit of mana back. Realistically, in low level scenarios – just use it to do more damage.

L8 Role Actions unlocked!

So you’ve unlocked your first role action as Arcanist. If you’re new, you access this by pressing (default) P > Role. Slots for role actions are unlocked at 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24 for base classes. Technically you unlock more at 32 onward, but you should advance to Summoner or Scholar by then.

Are guildhests worth it while leveling? Note that you get a large bonus EXP for the first time you complete a guildhest with that class. This is pretty worth it!

I mention this now at level 10 since we have a special guildhest – Under the Armor. It’s the fastest guildhest and people use this as the unofficial hest to queue up for to nail the Challenge Log entries quickly. It also helps for the quick completion of the “Player Commendation” entry.

The roulette is so-so. I like it very early on when the hests are limited to the extremely easy ones.

L12 Role Action slot II unlocked – Break: Slowing your opponent before reaching you… well… It’s not like enemies in this level range are that threatening. Not a very good skill.

Summon II: Topaz Carbuncle is OP. It’s a tank type pet that you should be using when soloing (DO NOT USE IT IN DUNGEONS). Use Physick on it when he’s low. As you can see, given all your tools as an Arcanist – they’re pretty OP in the leveling department.

L15 Unlocks - Duty Roulette Leveling

DR Leveling is an insane source of EXP and you shouldn’t let a day pass without doing it!

However, in this day and age there is a problem.

There are people who are the “Pure Palace of the Dead all the way BBY” types (nothing wrong with that), who may shun doing DR Leveling simply because they have no gear to speak of.

Don’t be dismayed due to a lack of gear! Grand Company seal gear is more than enough during this phase of the leveling period. It’s essentially FREE! NQ’s or cheap pieces from the market board can supplement the blanks. You can even buy from NPC’s!

These dungeons aren’t tuned to be very punishing, and being at a lower item level isn’t the end of the world.

L16 Role Actions Slot III Unlocked – Protect: VALUE. Rearrange your Role Actions to have this one in the first slot. Free defense and magic defense for no cost. Always keep this up, solo, in a party, raid…

L17 Unlocks - Challenge Log

Keep in mind it unlocks at L17 FOR FIRST TIMERS, but if you do have it unlocked, the Challenge Log can be abused from L1 for other classes.

The Challenge Log is a great way to gain EXP on the side. You should seek to complete as many relevant entries as you can before the week resets – at which time try to chase the good ones before it’s too late!

Once you hit level 30 FULL STOP! It’s time you evolve into a job class – in your case that’s Summoner or Scholar (SMN or SCH)! The prerequisites to unlocking the quest are simply finishing ALL ACN class quests up to level 30.

L30 Class quest unlocks – Bane, and the prereq for Summoner or Scholar:

Bane: Oh BOY. Finally! Bane SPREADS all your DoT’s afflicting your target, to all nearby enemies. This is an amazing AoE skill in dungeons at the low low cost of 1 Aetherflow. Keep in mind that DoT’s have a short settling time – BE SURE TO SEE IT ON THE ENEMY BEFORE YOU BANE. You’ll get what I mean in due time, once you’ve made this mistake enough times…

Completing this quest marks your final class quest as Arcanist. You now have the right to become a Summoner or Scholar!

How to become a Summoner or Scholar?

(REMEMBER: You can unlock both!)

The quest to become a Scholar is Forgotten but not Gone, found in Arcanists’ Guild. Completing this quest gives you Soul of the Scholar, and Adloquium skill. Scholars are purely a healing class, specializing in shields & mitigation. Your eventual Guildmaster is still located in Limsa.

The quest to become a Summoner is Austerities of Flame, also in the Arcanists’ Guild. This gives you the Soul of the Summoner and Summon III skill. Summoners are a DoT and pet-based caster class. Get ready to stretch your keybinds. Your eventual guildmaster is located in Gridania.

(Gaining EXP as SCH counts towards SMN and vice versa!)

Arcanist leveling OP - read before you proceed

Arcanist can somehow get the best of both worlds.

While soloing, doing easy FATES or whatnot, you can use Summoner since your DPS is a lot better (+Titan Egi to tank for you!). Summoners are stupidly good for soloing.

When it comes to anything with a queue, or difficult content which you would like to tackle “slow and safe” with healing – just go SCH. Queuing up as DPS sucks, man. Luckily you have an option.

However, don’t be “that guy” who plans to main SMN, and queue up SCH with horrendous gear and are clueless. Practice as early as L30, man.

Soul of the Summoner or Scholar is your job soul crystal. To become a Summoner or Scholar you merely have to equip it (it’s on the lower right most equipment slot). Equipping the soul crystal is a tiny bit of a hassle since you have to rebind your skills, and reconfigure your equipment set. But it’s okay since you’ll likely never be a Arcanist again.

And with that YOU’RE DONE WITH LEVELING Arcanist! Congrats! Feel free to proceed to the Summoner or Scholar Leveling Guide. Hopefully our Arcanist Leveling Guide helped you out